Combat Mechanics
This page details some advanced mechanics beyond 'use all skills off cooldown and press attack'. The base information for this is from the official game manual (available in Japanese underneath the game client under Help). Additional notes have been added based on logic. Elements The elements go by the following logic: * Wind is strong against Thunder, weak against Fire * Fire is strong against Wind, weak against Water * Water is strong against Fire, weak against Thunder * Thunder is strong against Water, weak against Wind * Light is slightly strong against Fire, Water, Wind and Thunder, and when pitted against Dark, the player's side is strong * Dark is slightly strong against Fire, Water, Wind and Thunder, and when pitted against Light, the player's side is strong * Physical is strong against all other elements, but also weak against all elements By 'strong', it means that it deals +45% damage to that element and receives reduced damage; by 'weak', it means it deals '-25%' damage and receives increased damage from that element. This is only not true of Illusion - in its case, it does increased damage to all elements but receives increased damage from all elements. It's a glass cannon type spec. Physical characters have not yet been added to the game, and will be added in a future patch. Normally this will mean that against a Fire target a Water team is recommended and a Wind compositions is discouraged and so on, but since Light and Dark have no weakness, Light and Dark elements are the go-to elements when no other element fits the bill, since they are slightly better than using the elements that are 'true neutral' relative to the target element. Similarly if the Quest dialog indicates that enemies are of mixed elemental nature, bringing Light or Dark to avoid is recommended to avoid getting caught in weakness to something. Status Effects Enemy side Overdive All enemies have a 'Overdive meter' in the form of dots below their HP bar. When it is full, they will use a special Overdrive Ability specific to the enemy type. In general, enemies with more dots have stronger Overdrive abilities, but take longer to prepare them. The general tactic is to eliminate those which can Overdrive every two turns (one dot) immediately, eliminate targets with strong Overdrive abilities next (3-4 dots), and use defensive skills to guard during the Overdrive of the targets who cannot be eliminated before they burst (2 dots). Rare monsters and Boss monsters have relatively strong Overdrive abilities which should be avoided whenever possible. Mode Gauge The Mode Gauge is unique to Boss-class monsters. All Bosses begin in Normal Mode, but will transition to Raging Mode and Stun Mode, as they take damage. Bosses also possess the Overdrive meter like all other enemies. * Normal Mode ** Boss behaves normally. ** Upon receiving enough damage, the transition to Raging mode is made. * Raging Mode ** Cooldown for the Boss' Active abilities is reduced. ** Special Active abilities only usable during Raging Mode become available. ** Upon receiving enough damage, the transition to Stun mode is made. * Stun Mode ** The Boss' Overdrive meter will not charge, and the Boss cannot use Overdrive if the meter is full. ** The rate at which the player's party will perform double attacks and triple attacks is increased. ** Upon receiving enough damage, the transition to Normal mode is made. Gameplay notes: * Do NOT allow the boss to perform a Overdrive attack (full, flashing dots) while Raging. The effects will not be pleasant even with damage mitigation skills active. * Multiple attack rate does not affect any Active abilities or Overdrive. Therefore as far as possible you will not want to do anything other than perform normal attacks in Stun phase. * The transition between the three modes is made at the end of each action. One attack turn (which may comprise of 15 attacks in a 5x triple attack scenario) will lead to at most only one mode transition. * The best timing for Burst abilities is when the Boss is Raging as it does so much damage it will generally force any Raging solo boss into Stun mode. Raid bosses are not as easy to deal with due to their significantly larger HP pool. * Usage of Active abilities other than debuffs in Normal mode is not advisable as the boss does less damage to begin with (making defense abilities irrelevant), and increasing outgoing damage to the boss will shorten the duration of Normal mode. Weak/Utility/Healing/Debuffing summons are usually used in this phase rather than damage-based summons. * Usage of debuffs in the initial Normal mode is recommended as debuffs have long duration (180s) - the longer they stay applied, the more effect they have in total. * Usage of Active abilities in Raging mode is recommended as this will shorten the Raging duration, possibly ending it within one turn if summed Active ability damage and normal attack damage can fully deplete the Raging bar. * Usage of Defensive abilities is generally restricted to defending against the Boss' Overdrive in Normal Mode. The objective of Raging mode is not to reduce incoming damage, but to transition to Stun as soon as possible. * Counter-attacker Souls are especially potent in Raging and Stun modes. * Use of Active abilities in Stun mode is not advisable as this will put the skill on cooldown while possibly reducing overall damage as well as Burst Gauge charge. This occurs as Active ability damage will shorten, or even end the Stun mode, reducing the total number of multiple attacks that can be used, while putting the ability on cooldown that locks it out of use during the Raging mode where that damage is extremely valuable. Recommended boss turn order # Start out with full debuffs (particularly Snatch if available). Use no other abilities initially. Normal attack until Raging. # AoE Healing Active abilities should be used at the cusp of Raging to prevent members from getting wiped during Raging. # When Raging starts, apply all self-buffs except Defense, then attack with all offensive abilities at once. Then follow up with buffed normal attacks. # When Stun mode starts, use only normal attacks (i.e no Burst and no Active abilities). This will lead to more double attacks being used, charging the Burst gauge faster, and likely increasing overall damage. # Normally attack through Normal mode 2. This time it is okay to use offensive abilities, but reserve buffs. Heal when off cooldown if needed, otherwise wait until after the boss uses Burst to heal as its attacks are normally AoE. Use defensive abilities when the boss has maxed flashing dots. # When target reaches Raging for the second time, dump all remaining offensive abilities. Apply buffs. Then activate a Full Burst. # This will push the Boss directly into Stun. Follow up with double attacks and the boss should fall. If not, repeat from Step 2. Friendly side Burst When the Burst gauge on the right side of each character's slot reaches 100, the character is capable of using a Burst attack. The Burst attack does extremely high elemental damage at the cost of not being able to use multiple attacks, depletes the Burst gauge to zero, and increases the Burst levels for all successive characters by the constant. Ways of charging the Burst gauge are as follows: * Dealing damage from normal attacks * Using Active abilities or summons that increase the Burst gauge * Having another character earlier in the turn order use their Burst * Receiving damage (percentage relative to damage received) * Using an Elixir in battle (not recommended) By default, Bursts activate as soon as they are available. By clicking the orange button at the bottom right corner, it is possible to disable this behavior to time the Bursts when they do the most good (i.e. when Full Burst is available, when a Boss is Raging, etc.) When more than one character uses a Burst in the same attack turn, a Burst Streak is executed at the end of the attack turn, with damage proportional to the number of Bursts activated. When all 5 characters execute Bursts in succession, the Burst Streak is known as a Full Burst. The element of the Burst Streak is decided by the element of the first character to use their Burst, and so all Full Bursts are necessarily of the element of the Soul, as they are enforced to be the first character to act. By default, the amount added by normal attacks or Bursts is 10% per attack, and so the lowest Burst gauge conditions for a Full Burst is 100-90-80-70-60. Multiple attacks Some status effects are capable of increasing or decreasing the chance to perform multiple attack rate, Bosses in Stun phase increase outgoing multiple attacks to them, and certain passives will increase multiple attack rate under certain conditions (Arthur has increased multiple attack rate for whole party when she applies AoE Attack Up, Siegfried has further increased multiple attack rate during Stun phase, etc.). One thing that is important to note is that multiple attacks not only deal more damage, but also increase the Burst gauge by that amount per strike. Ergo, triple attacks will charge the Burst gauge three times faster. Target selection By default attacks are randomly assigned. It is possible to order your party to aim for specific targets by clicking on them. All Active abilities are also aimed towards the selected target. Enemy target selection is semi-random. Your Front Line (Soul and top two Kamihime in the Formation interface) will tend to be targeted more often than your Back Line (bottom two Kamihime in the Formation interface). For this cause: * Kamihime with multiple attack capabilities should be assigned to the back line as they already charge the Burst Gauge more easily and do not require help from receiving damage. * Kamihime with self-debuffing skills (Boreas or Ignis lvl 25+ for instance) should be assigned to the back line to reduce the chance they are hit with their defense down. * Kamihime with elemental disadvantage that you want to bring for some reason (for instance, Nike in World 3, as she takes increased damage from Thunder targets, but is useful for her AoE heal) should be assigned to the back line. * Kamihime with elemental advantage should be assigned to the front line to reduce the damage they take. * Kamihime with defense self-buffs (Rusalka for instance) or self-healing skills (Indra for instance) should be assigned to the front line as they can mitigate damage better.